CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- FBI agents found hundreds of classified documents on computers in the home of Paula Broadwell during an investigation into her relationship with then-CIA Director David Petraeus, according to newly unsealed documents.
More than 300 of those documents were classified as secret, according to a 2013 FBI affidavit accompanying the agency's request to search Petraeus' home in Arlington, Va.
The documents, which were unsealed Tuesday by the U.S. District Court in Eastern Virginia, offer new details of the federal investigation into the relationship between Broadwell, a Charlotte author, and Petraeus, the subject of a biography by Broadwell, his former lover.
The probe uncovered their affair, revealed their mishandling of classified documents and led to Petraeus' resignation as head of the CIA. Last year, Petraeus pleaded guilty in Charlotte to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling government documents and was fined $100,000.
Broadwell was never charged. Legal experts say her role as a journalist made any prosecution problematic.
The documents, partially redacted, were sealed for more than three years. It was released in response to a public information request by the media.
The documents show that when confronted by the FBI, both Broadwell and Petraeus appeared to have misled investigators about their extensive exchange of classified material, most of it involving military and diplomatic operations during Petraeus' years as commander of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Petraeus admitted his affair with Broadwell during an October 2012 interview with the FBI in his CIA office. But he said he never gave classified information to her.
Interviewed in Charlotte, Broadwell claimed to have gotten some of the documents doing research for her book but "was unable to provide specifics as to how she obtained them. ... Broadwell advised that she never received classified information from Petraeus," the affidavit says.
On the contrary, the new documents include details of multiple emails between the two over classified records, including the "black book" diaries and logs Petraeus kept as commander.
In one exchange included in the affidavit, Broadwell told Petraeus that certain records he'd shared were "naturally very helpful ... (I want more of them! I know you're holding back.)"
The FBI found that Petraeus shared eight of his black books with Broadwell in 2011. Those contained secret codes, highly sensitive diplomatic information and wartime strategies, among other highly classified information. At the time, she was writing All In, Petraeus' biography.
In the years since, Broadwell has apologized for the affair and said she has attempted to rebuild her marriage and has focused on charitable issues such as returning veterans and Wounded Warriors.
"I'm the first to admit I screwed up," Broadwell recently told The New York Times. "But how long does a person pay for their mistake?"
Information for this article was contributed by Maria David of The Charlotte Observer.
A Section on 06/11/2016